I've designed a shopping cart in Perl/CGI which I was planning to 'rent out' to numerous customers. The customers using my shopping cart to sell their own products would be using my server (third party webhosting).
Recently however, I've read about performance issues with using Perl over the web and was wondering if I haven't wasted my time (perhaps should have designed it all using ASP).

So I was wondering...
1) Is it going to slow down the server to excess if I have 100+ of the same cart running, each accessing a unique flat file database of 500k or so? (I wish to use flat file because the customers wish to export tab delimited databases from their accounting software). Assume that my server is just the run of the mill webhosting that you recieve at $15p/m sort of thing.
2) If yes, would MySQL sort the problem and how would I get flat file into SQL?
3) If such a feat is too much for the average webhosting service, what sort of machine will I need to accomplish this on my own? (eg I'll have to steal God's computer)
4) And ultimately, what does PERL/CGI have over ASP and similar scripting/languages when it comes to e-commerce websites?

I would also appreciate any help/links/material in dealing with mass use of a CGI program over the web.

Please excuse if these seem like basic questions but I'm certaintly no expert.

Thanking all ye Monks in advance...

A wee little novice

In reply to Perl/CGI Performance for a Shopping Cart by Sasquire

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